Program
Sessions
Session 1: The aquatic NEXUS, from freshwater to marine effective connectivity
This session explores the critical links between freshwater and marine systems, emphasizing the concept of effective connectivity across the aquatic continuum. By integrating ecological, hydrological, and socio-economic perspectives, the discussion will highlight how rivers, estuaries, and coastal seas function as interconnected systems supporting biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. It will examine the pathways and processes that link rivers, wetlands, estuaries, and coastal seas, emphasizing the importance of maintaining effective connectivity for aquatic species, particularly in supporting life cycles, migration patterns, and dispersal. Special attention will be given to the transversal movement of organisms and ecological subsidies such as nutrients and energy flows, which sustain ecosystem functions and promote dynamic interactions between freshwater and marine environments. Presentations will address key challenges such as habitat fragmentation, disrupted flows, and anthropogenic pressures, alongside innovative approaches to restore and maintain connectivity. It will particularly highlight innovative restoration strategies, including fish passage solutions, dam removal projects, and nature-based approaches, as well as governance frameworks for integrated watershed-to-ocean management. By advancing our understanding of species movement and the functional connectivity of aquatic ecosystems, this session aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and identify pathways to enhance climate resilience and support sustainable development agendas, including One Health and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Session 2: Drivers of ecosystem connectivity in a changing environment
This session will explore the multiple environmental and anthropogenic drivers shaping ecological connectivity across marine and coastal ecosystems. Changes in ocean conditions, species distributions, phenology, habitat fragmentation, resource exploitation, pollution, maritime activities, and biological invasions are increasingly altering the flow of nutrients, energy, organisms, and ecological functions between connected habitats and ecosystems. These processes can disrupt ecological balance, biodiversity, and the provision of ecosystem services across interconnected marine environments.
Discussions will focus on how shifting connectivity patterns challenge current conservation and management approaches, as well as the resilience and adaptive capacity of marine socio-ecological systems. Contributions addressing cumulative impacts, cross-boundary interactions, and linkages among coastal, benthic, pelagic, and transitional ecosystems will be particularly encouraged. The session welcomes case studies, conceptual advances, monitoring frameworks, and modeling approaches that improve our understanding of ecosystem connectivity across spatial and temporal scales. Research exploring integrated, ecosystem-based, and cross-sectoral management strategies, including participatory and interdisciplinary approaches, will also be highly relevant.
Session 3: Species on the move: Movement as a driver of ecological connectivity
This session will address the ecological and conservation implications of aquatic animals movement in driving connectivity among aquatic ecosystems. Aquatic animals play key functional roles in aquatic ecosystems and can also be of important socioeconomic value (fisheries). Aquatic animals movements play a key role in nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and food web dynamics through their active movement, which often spans large spatial scales and links disparate habitats. However, these wide-ranging behaviours present significant challenges for science and conservation, particularly in contexts where data is scarce and the ‘movescapes’ of species (comprising their movement patterns and ecological roles) remain poorly understood.
Biologging technologies have emerged as powerful tools for uncovering the hidden spatial ecology of aquatic animals, offering new insights into movement strategies, habitat use and connectivity pathways. Furthermore, their movements often follow non-random, corridor-like routes (connectivity hotspots) that must be considered in effective spatial management. This data is essential for informing management and conservation planning, particularly in coastal waters, where many fishery resources face severe threats such as overexploitation, habitat reduction and contamination.
This session will explore how integrating biologging data and movement ecology into management and conservation strategies can improve conservation outcomes and foster more resilient aquatic ecosystems.
Keynotes
Audrey M. Darnaude (MARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Montpellier, France)
Marine biodiversity and the functioning of the biosphere: current knowledge and research challenges in marine functional connectivity for improved ecosystem management across the Land–Sea Interface
Audrey M. Darnaude is a fish ecologist with more than 25 years of research experience investigating the biology and lifetime behaviour of amphidromous and marine fish species, with a particular focus on the use of individual biochemical tracers. She teaches biogeochemistry, food web ecology and fish ecology at the University of Montpellier and leads or contributes to numerous research projects addressing life-history traits (growth, feeding strategies and migratory behaviour) and demographic connectivity of fish species of high economic importance, primarily in Europe, Africa and the Americas.
Her research also explores the functioning of coastal food webs and habitat connectivity in marine systems and across the land–sea interface. Since 2020, she has been actively engaged in large-scale international initiatives aimed at strengthening the coordination of global ocean observation, monitoring and integrated management. She chaired the international COST Action SEA-UNICORN (2020–2024), which advanced research in the emerging field of marine functional connectivity. She currently co-chairs the Biology and Ecosystems Panel of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) under IOC–UNESCO and contributes to several global initiatives of IOC and GEO BON focused on sustainable ocean planning and the harmonisation and sharing of marine biodiversity data.
Jesse O’Hanley (University of Kent, United Kingdom)
River connectivity planning and optimization for environmental management
Jesse O’Hanley is Professor of Environmental Systems Management at the University of Kent. His research focuses on the use of optimization and simulation techniques for environmental planning, with a particular emphasis on river barrier prioritization and river connectivity enhancement. He has authored more than 70 publications covering a wide range of theoretical and applied interdisciplinary topics. His work has been funded by UK research councils, Innovate UK, and Horizon Europe. Prof. O’Hanley also advises government agencies, NGOs and industry on environmental planning and decision-support tools. In 2015 he received the EURO Excellence in Practice Award for developing an optimization-based decision support system used in California, the US Pacific Northwest and other regions to plan river connectivity restoration actions.
Esben Moland Olsen (Institute of Marine Research, Flødevigen Research Station, Arendal, Norway)
Fish movescapes, ecological connectivity and conservation of functional diversity in coastal systems
Esben Moland Olsen is a marine ecologist at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR) and affiliated with the Centre for Coastal Research at the University of Agder, Norway. For more than two decades he has studied the movement ecology and life-history diversity of coastal fishes, focusing on interactions with fisheries, climate change and the role of marine protected areas (MPAs) in ecosystem recovery. Since 2022 he has been part of the ICES Working Group on Marine Protected Areas. Olsen specializes in the use of acoustic telemetry to track fish movements, habitat use and survival and coordinates an extensive telemetry array along the Norwegian coast that contributes data to the European Tracking Network. He chaired the 5th International Conference of Fish Telemetry and currently leads the EU Biodiversa+ project MOVE, which investigates the movescapes and ecological roles of predatory coastal fishes to improve conservation and fisheries sustainability in Europe.
Anna M. Addamo (Department of Integrative Marine Ecology – Genoa Marine Centre, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Italy)
Connected by change: building climate-resilient ecological networks for Europe’s future
Anna M. Addamo is a marine biologist and ecologist with a PhD in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Genoa Marine Centre of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy) and a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. She previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher and project manager for MPA Europe at Nord University, and held research positions at the Spanish National Research Council and the European Commission Joint Research Centre. Her research combines systematics, molecular ecology and seascape ecology to study marine benthic invertebrates, particularly corals inhabiting shallow, mesophotic and deep-sea ecosystems. Her work addresses vulnerable marine ecosystems, biodiversity conservation, protected area design, anthropogenic pressures, ecosystem services and science–policy integration to support sustainable marine governance.
